INDIA: Corruption in India, the world's eighth most graft-ridden country according to a Berlin-based anti-corruption group, has taken on an ironic twist.
Bribes across northern Punjab state and neighbouring regions are now being paid with counterfeit money smuggled in from Pakistan.
A senior Punjab police officer recently gave 4 million rupees ($83,000) for his daughter's recruitment into government service. Another 2 million rupees was disbursed among various officials to ensure a decent grade in the entrance test, a prerequisite for her enrolment.
Predictably, the young woman was employed.
But the bribe-takers were soon in a frenzy to rid themselves of their ill-gotten gains as they were found to be counterfeit.
Around the same time, a senior Punjab minister received a large sum of money for "services rendered". Gleefully, he dispatched his loyal assistant to deposit the amount in an undisclosed account in a nondescript private bank in the state capital, Chandigarh.
A few minutes later, red-faced and perspiring, the assistant walked nervously back to his boss's office tightly clutching the briefcase, still bulging with money, and handed it over to the minister.
The bank, he said, had refused to accept the deposit and advised that he get rid of the fake currency as swiftly as possible.
The corrupt in Punjab and other north Indian cities are in a fix these days as enterprising criminal syndicates on either side of the porous Pakistani frontier, owing loyalty only to money, have given a new meaning to graft.
The "right" contacts can ensure that Pakistani counterfeit currency is available even cheaper, admitted a police officer, who is a conduit for the contraband. He declared that the rate dipped even further in instances where the amount required was large.
Free market rules, it seems, apply even here.
Meanwhile, a recent poll conducted in New Delhi and five other cities across the country by the Centre for Media Studies revealed that over 40 per cent of government employees admit to having paid a bribe to employees from other departments.
Almost half of the 5,400 people surveyed said they had paid to expedite work that was their due, while one-third confessed to having used middlemen.
The survey also showed that 81 per cent never complain about giving bribes, 48 per cent blamed politicians for perpetuating graft and, alarmingly, 63 per cent agreed that corruption was not being tackled seriously and that they had become resigned to it.